The Storm
July 31, 2008
I was in class on Monday when I noticed the clouds just come billowing in. The very clear sky almost suddenly became a dark blue, light gray, then finally, a very ominous dark gray. It was remarkable how fast the sky changed.
Feeling the window, the temperature must have dropped by a whole lot too because the window was cool to the touch instead of being hot as it usually is in the summertime in Japan. Looking onto the street I could see not only the trees waving around from the wind, but even the lamp posts were swaying slightly.
This was to be some storm.
At around 2pm, hail suddenly started falling. People were running into the convenience store while others jumped into their cars for cover. The hail lasted barely a couple of minutes and it actually cleared up a little. “So much for that storm,” I thought. It turned out I was a bit too early to call the end of the storm.
In a few minutes time it began to rain. Nay, it began to pour. No, water began to drench the streets. It was one of the heaviest rainfalls I’ve ever experienced in Japan. In Kyoto, one of the river banks actually rose up by a meter in 10 minutes, that’s 10cm of rain per minute! Unfortunately, four people died from being swept by this sudden rise in water level.
I was a lot safer in class. However, of all days to leave my umbrella behind, I chose this day to do so. Earlier that day at home I looked out the window and had decided that there was no way it would rain today. I decided to leave my windows open to try to keep the place as cool as possible in this 30+ humid weather. My bad.
As class ended, everyone just stood near the window. I couldn’t help but keep my face pressed against the window the whole time. I love lightning too much to miss this. I was told by Steve that this brought one of the most impressive lightning storms. I couldn’t see much other than bright flashes reflected off buildings but our building had the power knocked out for a few minutes. The thunder was most superb though. Several students screamed.
I decided that I couldn’t waste any more time waiting for this rainstorm to end. I had to go home. Some of the students downstairs watched with puzzled looks as I walked out without any sort of cover. I had to stop by the convenience store and pick up an umbrella though – the rain was really heavy. I jumped into the JR train from Shin-Osaka station and after a few minutes noticed we weren’t leaving.
Unfortunately, the lightning had knocked something out and all trains had stopped. They did not mention how long we would be stuck here so I just decided to stay and listen to my Coast To Coast on my Ipod. In the end I waited a whole hour in the train. It still didn’t move. I decided to leave the exit and take the subway home. It was a bit of a detour but getting home late was better than sitting next to grumpy people in an overheated train. There were a lot of people waiting outside the ticket gates waiting for the trains to restart too.
Finally I get home and as expected my place was soaked. Water had soaked into the tatami as far as meters from the window. My kotatsu had a nice coating of water. My laptop was unfortunately placed on the kotatsu. It is with much sadness that I have to announce that both my laptop and my phone have drowned to death due to my carelessness with the window.
I don’t feel too bad. The laptop was super old and now it gives us a reason to get a new one. The tatami mats dried quickly and everything else has been cleaned. In the end, it was one fantastic day experiencing the strongest storm I’ve seen in a long long time.
Before
July 25, 2008
Coming very soon… Golden Harvest Wing Chun‘s own school.
Push
July 22, 2008
Another sign of summer in Japan.
I Hate Banks in Japan
July 19, 2008
Back in March, for whatever it was I did, I got a money order from the ELI when Maki came to Japan for an Alumni gathering. I was reluctant to take it because I really didn’t do anything that I felt needed compensation. Regardless, a few weeks later, I received a mail order for 8,832 yen. It’s not a huge amount of money but it’s enough for 4-5 days on my spending habits.
Well this year has kept me rather busy and I put off cashing in this money order until last week. This one little trip to the bank has reaffirmed my hatred of Japanese banks.
First, after a bit of a wait, I get to the regular teller window and the bank girl has no idea what it is I’m holding in my hand. She actually starts turning it around in her hand, ie. turning the paper upside down so that the print is upside down, and turning it back over in a perfect 360. It was like watching a toddler handle a book or a caveman handling a PDA. She starts asking the girls around her and then finally calling what must be the resident answer girl.
The resident answer girl seemed to recognize this financial instrument and told me to go over to the foreign currency area. There, the older seemingly less-intelligent woman now handles the money order. Just as before, she inspects this piece of paper with a very puzzled look – her eyebrows were furrowed, her lips puckered, and her eyes were squinting through those very coke bottle glasses she was wearing. She then goes and asks some boring guy in a suit about it and to see whether or not this bank can continue this transaction.
A bit of a side note.
This money order is from HSBC, the 4th largest bank in the world, (Wiki) not exactly some shitty credit union run by radish farmers. Next, the money order is endorsed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the 5th largest bank in the world, and incidentally, the VERY BANK I’M IN! I’m no financial expert but this piece of paper had all the legal requirements to make it a legal financial instrument. In all practical purposes, this is just like a check.
Back to the story.
Well, finally, the older seemingly less-intelligent woman must have gotten clearance to continue this and starts collecting application papers. Yes, to cash a money order you have to fill out an application form. While I’m doing this, the woman calls another branch, presumably head office and asks questions. The one question that stuck in my mind was, “Can we receive these?” You fucking idiot. You work in a bank, remember? I finish the application form and she goes over it and makes another call and asks a few more questions.
Just as I feel a bit better for finishing and hopefully leaving the bank 8,832 yen richer, she starts explaining administrative costs. Shit.
Anyway I’ll cut to the finale:
- I couldn’t receive the money that day because it would take 2-3 days, possibly a week before this would be done. It actually took two days.
- I end up being at the bank for just over an hour.
- The administrative fees would run between 1,500-4,000 yen. The END RESULT: 4,000 yen fee. 1,500 transaction fee, 2,500 currency exchange fee.
What a fucking joke. Of my 8,832 yen I receive 4,432. That’s almost 50% gone because of this fucking bank. Can you imagine paying 40 bucks to get a money order done in your country? What really drives me mad is that when the ELI purchased this money order, they paid administrative fees. Furthermore, the money order was made out in YEN – WHY is there a currency exchange fee? Are they exchanging the yen to Indian Rupees to bushels of wheat and then back to yen?
I can understand that Japan does not use money orders regularly but to have the biggest bank in Japan not know how to deal with them, and then take up 40 bucks to get it done, is just a joke.
I hate banks in Japan.
Cleaned
July 16, 2008
Finally. Google has taken out the warning that my site is harmful.
My site was hacked or my password found out or something or another. Every page that started with “index” had some nice little piece of obfuscated code inserted at the bottom. Moreover, two directories filled with junk html pages that redirected people to what must be nasty sites were created.
As of last check, Google has no longer deemed this site harmful.
Now back to the virus creating.
Movies
July 05, 2008
Summer is the movie season and here are a few of the flicks I’ve seen recently.
- Indiana Jones: not bad! Very entertaining!
- Rambo: The most violent movie I’ve ever seen.
- Ironman: This was awesome!
- Kung Phooey: I just had to buy the DVD and it cost me a total of $1.16. What a great movie.
- Forbidden Kingdom: What a bag of suck.
Hancock looks quite fun as does Batman. Those are on top of my summer list.
